AN ABERYSTWYTH group who travelled to France to lay plaques at two Somme war memorials are said to be “gutted” after discovering they had been stolen.

Members of the Aberystwyth branch of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Comrades Association travelled to Mametz Wood for the centenary service held on 7 July, 100 years to the day that the 38th Welsh Division entered the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest battle in history where more than a million people died.

Mark Randall, Cllr Paul Hinge, Duncan Sykes and Mike Binks made two plaques from Welsh slate and a red rampant dragon made with polycarbonate, and placed one at the Mametz Wood memorial, and another at the memorial at Thiepval.

But speaking to the Cambrian News this week, Cllr Hinge, who is Armed Forces Champion for Ceredigion County Council, said the group were shocked to be told by a friend who visited the memorials after them that the plaques were nowhere to be seen.

“I am gutted to be honest,” Cllr Hinge told the Cambrian News. “We laid them there in memory not only of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who died in the Somme, but the other Welsh regiments as well.

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